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  • Speedy template tips?

    Is there any way to speed the process of building a template?

    I wish VI Pro had a macro or instrument duplicator function. Where you could just say 'apply to Viola patches' and create a new Preset. That way most the work is done, except for some small adjustments. Anyone know of any useful ways of saving time? Aside from the new link function which doesn't help me.

    -Sean


  •  Hi Sean,

    there are indeed some very useful hidden features to speed up template building. Initially developed to speed up the workflow for building all the VSL factory Matrices for VI PRO 2.

    At the moment I can't give proper informations because I don't have acces to my workstations here. But I can post some useful infos tomorrow.

    And further we plan to produce a kind of "VI PRO for PROs" video which will demonstrate a lot of useful tips and tricks.

    best

    Herb


  • Herb, thanks for the reply. I look forward to your follow-up post. Any information I'm sure will help tremendously!

    -Sean


  • WOW, so if you still plan to post anything useful... I'd gladly welcome it. But in case anyone else reads this thread, I must have been blind before now!

    I thought the Link tool merely adjusted all the same parameters, attack, etc. I didn't realize I could replace that patch with a Va Stac patch and they all updated together. I feel like an idiot posting my request now. But thanks again for the reply and any future video's, etc. And may I say again... you guys are awesome!!

    -Sean


  •   I see, you have checked out the "Link by patch name" button. Indeed a very useful feature for presets using the same patch multiple times,  for example all the new APP-sequenzes factory presets..

    Is this button activated all patches with the same name are syncronised. Any changes of volume, panning, mapping parameters, keyboard envelope are synced. Altering any parameter will alter this parameter for all patches with same name inside a preset.

    Also exchanging a patch with a new one is applied to all existing patches with same name. Further you can hold down the "ALT" key when dragging in any new patch. This will force to keep all applied settings done to the previously loaded patch. This usefull if you change a patch of an instrument which is quite similiar. For example staccatos to detache, or any performance repetion patch with a different performance patch, or a simple example, a sfz with sffz.

    I usually have used this "ALT" key function when exchanging a setup to different instruments. It was easier to keep all settings and readjusting the playrange of the new loaded instrument patches on the VI PRO keyboard (using the keyboard range handles).

    Another gem is, copying the very first matrix line of Y - axe to all following lines.

    For example, you've set up your articulations you want to use in one APP-sequenze, and now you want to use the same articulations for different sequenzes. So your matrix is setup using 12x12 cells. Only the cells in the first line are filled with patches now. With right mouse click on one of these cells in the first row you will see the entrie "Replicate Rows". With this feature you are copying all cells vertically.  It's usefull to know that you do not alter any sequenzes in the APP-Sequenzer, which could have been setup before. This operations will be only applied to the patches inside the cells. This feature is also useful, if you don't want to use the "Link by patch name" feature. (For example you use the same patch twice with different settings, so the Link feature is not useful anymore)

    You have the possibility to make any changes in the very first row. And than activate the "Replicate Rows" once again. Be aware that "Replicate Rows" is only workable for the first row. It doesn't matter if you click on any cell in the second or third row. The duplication is alway based on cells of the first row.

    Finally we have implemented a hidden keyboard shortcut which is only available in the standalone version of VI PRO. So if you want to use it for template building you have to startup VI PRO standalone.

    With the combination Ctrl-Alt-W (on windows) or Alt-Cmd-W (Mac) you get a new window which lists all loaded patches within a loaded preset.

    For example soloviolin, you will see a list like this:

    01 VI_staccato

    02 VI_detache_short

    11 VI_fp_Vib

    (and so on)

    Now you want to exchange the soloviolin preset with soloviola for example.

    The common label of soloviolin in the patchnamens is obvioulsly " VI_

    Now type VI_ into the "Replace" field and VA_ into the "To" field. Clicking OK will exchange all patches with matching names at once.

    Click on OK and you will get another list overview displaying what exatly will happen, which can be confirmed or denied. For some patches, which have sligthly different names a kind of automatic guessing is prepared. Changing a string instrument to a woodwind instrument will offer some errors, which are also documentated there. These patches have to be replaced manually afterwards.

    Further you have two checkboxes, where you can define if the auto replacement is applied to an actually selected matrix or to all matrix files in a preset. And the checkbox "Clear Cell" is similiar to the "ALT" key function using for manually replacement. If "Clear cells" is deactivated all applied mapping parameters are kept. In our example (Violin to Viola)  this would meant that you have to readjust the playrange of all viola patches.

    With "Clear cells" activated all new patches will be loaded with default setting as usually.

    Herb


  • Herb, I think I love you!!

    Lol, no... but seriously THANK YOU!

    Replicate Rows

    I've already been using this and accidentally discovered why it's useful instead of 'linking'. GREAT feature. I'm not using the APP seq. so much for my template, but an individual basis. But even then, I'm naming a lot my cells on my own (long story why, but very functionally useful) and the replicate is saving a LOT of time on that alone, aside from all the other settings copied.

    The Alt feature is great! I love it!

    Regarding the Ctril-Alt-W feature...

    First, wow. I love it! I respect that it's not supported. Personally, I'd still include this in the manual and sell it as a main feature. I'd simply explain that it's more of an 'experimental instrument changer', lol.

    Either way, I would suggest one thing. If you guys keep this, if even on the back-end and unsupported. I would suggest (if it wouldn't be time consuming to implement) a 'preserve instrument ranges' check box or something. So you can choose to if you want. I figure in most cases, one wouldn't want to preserve the ranges.

    But either way, thank you again. This new info is going to save me LOADS of time. More composing, less 'template programming'. I love it!

    -Sean


  • Is this ctrl+alt+w feature still available? I can't get it to work in VI Pro Standalone.


  • Can somebody confirm if the "Ctrl+Alt+W" Shortcut is working in VIP? Thanks

  • Hi, Can confirm its NOT working for me either which is a great pity as I've spent hours setting up a player 1 custom template for Dimension Strings and would like to use it to generate the other 7.

  • Here on Mac, it works with alt-command-W.


  • Tis working well with the new update. Thank You :-)

  • Why is this replacement changing only the grace note patches? I've checked the patch names and the Flugelhorn has many other identically-named patches.

    Image


  • Hi Talino, 

    This is a hidden and unsupported developer tool, and one reason for this is that it doesn´t work 100% reliably with the thousands of patches that are available with all our products. 

    So I´m afraid it is like it is.... we hope it´s still a great help. 

    Best, 
    Paul


    Paul Kopf Product Manager VSL
  • OK, no problem, although it would be really nice to have this quickly fixed and brought forward into the interface, it is a very helpful feature IMHO.

    Thanks.


  • Hi,

    I can't make the Cmd-Alt-W feature work. I'm on a Mac, VIPRO 2.4.16799.

    1) I open a preset, and press Cmd-Alt-W. The "Loaded Patches" dialog appears.

    2) I type in the "Replace" field the starting prefix (for example, "VI-14_"), and in the "To" field the target one (for example, "VI_".

    3) The "All matrices" option is selected. "Clear cells", "Keep labels" and "Search in prefix" are not selected.

    4) After pressing OK, I end up with a long list of errors. For example: "To be replaced: 101. Errors: 31, Subst: 2".

    5) When pressing OK in this list, I'm kept back to the "Loaded Patches" dialog, with some patches in bold face, but still the old patches and not the new ones.

    I try to repeat the operation, but nothing is replaced.

    What am I doing wrong? This is very important for me, because without this feature working, it would be impossibile to create my own presets.

    Paolo

    Image

    Image


  • Ok, maybe I've understood. The list ends with some hidden command, that pressing OK do not confirm, but aborts. By pressing the Right Arrow, then Ok, the replacement command is confirmed.

    Paolo


  • last edited
    last edited
    @Paul said:

    Hi Talino,


    This is a hidden and unsupported developer tool, and one reason for this is that it doesn´t work 100% reliably with the thousands of patches that are available with all our products.


    So I´m afraid it is like it is.... we hope it´s still a great help.


    Best,
    Paul

    I love this feature. It's always worked great for me.
    But now I can't find it in the Silicon version. Has this been removed from there @Paul?

    I found the other function called Matrix Automation, which is great for Dimension strings, but can't make it work for the choir for instance.

    Thanks in advance.

    (I'm on Sonoma 14.2.1 with the VIP v157)


  • Just bumping this.
    I still miss this feature very much. Hope that someone has some insight how to use it again.


  • Okay I just figured out it's still working in version 2.6.99 (which is not silicon native), but I can install that when making patches and then re-install the latest version (2.7.157) when writing music.

    Not ideal but at least it's a workaround.